Madelyne Pryor 2024: Appreciation, Aspirations and Cheers for Her

[JThree]

Yeah, I never bought the Scott/Maddie relationship. He got a lot of flack from readers back then who already felt it was too soon that he was linked with Lee Forrester after Jean's death and then that he dumped her the the Phoenix, why nobody considered revealing that Maddie was that real Jean. Perhaps that Sinister had found her body in Jamaica Bay and released her and left her amnesiac.
Iy.

People were upset when Scott was with Lee Forrester for an issue or two? Guess that was before my time.

--jthree

[whitecrown]

People were upset when Scott was with Lee Forrester for an issue or two? Guess that was before my time.

--jthree

Yes, in the letter pages for UXM, a lot of people were very upset and said it was a betrayal to Jean's memory. As early as UXM 144, there were negative reactions about Lee. To be fair, even when I went back and read all these issues in the Omnibus, I also felt it was too soon so I can see why readers in realtime were upset. Her funeral was only in UXM 138 and this was more or less the first we were seeing of Scott since then.

It was weird too because you still had issues like UXM Annual 5 where Storm was reflecting on how Scott/Jean were like Reed/Sue and the ultimate endgame couple, so it seems Marvel didn't want to commit to Scott with any other woman. When Maddie arrived, obviously most fans assumed this was Jean reincarnated so there wasn't anyone upset then. I think after it became clear she wasn't going to be Jean (despite all the weird coincidences and similarities), that there was fan backlash in the letters pages. The most heartbreaking one I think was actually included in UXM 175, the wedding issue, where a fan said that Jean would always be the true love of Scott and nobody could ever replace her. And imagine reading this a few pages after Scott's wedding and when he goes to Jean's grave to ask for her blessing.

[whitecrown]

IMHO, Claremont's happy ending for Scott & Maddie was the best comic book romance ever. The ending where Scott pieced together the clues that it was Mastermind who was pulling their strings and came up with a plan to fight back was masterful. Scott was a real hero back then, thought out a plan, executed it, and (dare I say it) got the girl. There were emotional beats to it. The mystery and storyline was well thought out and all fit together. I miss those days. When heroes could be heroes, villains be villains, and eh. I better stop there. Claremont will always have my appreciation for that storyline.

==jthree

For me it works but only if Maddie is intended to be a reincarnation of Jean. Almost like CC knows he's not allowed to bring Jean back so he introduces this doppelganger and gives us all the hints that it has to be Jean, wink wink, even if he can't say it aloud. I was reading some fan comments on John Byrne's forum last night and even there, fans were disgruntled about Claremont's concept of Maddie and how they never bought that Scott was in love with her. How he seemed massively in denial and anyone who was close to him should have rushed to get him therapy.

It's nice to hear that not everybody thought that, based on your reactions, but I think I'd belong in the latter camp because it came across as insincere to me and way too rushed. Maddie appears for the first time in UXM 168 and by 175, they're already married. It felt too jarring especially when you consider that for most of those issues, 168-175, Scott/Maddie aren't even the mainplot but the B-plot. They don't get elevated to the main story until after the Wolverine/Mariko wedding drama which is really just 174-175. And keep in mind the slow burn for Scott/Jean as a couple. They'd been around since 1963 and UXM 94 is the first time we even see them kiss, something UXM 98 even winks at. So the fact that Scott/Maddie were married in less than 10 issues, when neither of them are main characters in UXM, and most of their screentime is pointing out how Maddie has so many connections to Jean, is really hard to digest for most.

[Darth_Caedus]

Superhero comics are never going to end, Claremont thinking that he had truly retired Scott and given him a happy ending that later guys ignored and had every right to hate on the character was as childish as a grown up man could be.

[whitecrown]

Superhero comics are never going to end, Claremont thinking that he had truly retired Scott and given him a happy ending that later guys ignored and had every right to hate on the character was as childish as a grown up man could be.

Claremont writing the book for 17 years straight (and he's admitted that he regrets leaving the book due to friction with Jim Lee and Bob Harras, and had he held on a little longer, he could have more or less regained control of the book since Lee left shortly afterward) meant that he felt ownership of these characters and that he could advance and evolve them in ways that other Marvel books couldn't. Which is why he was able to introduce a new generation and have them potentially replace the main X-Men cast who would eventually age out of their roles.

[Darth_Caedus]

Claremont writing the book for 17 years straight (and he's admitted that he regrets leaving the book due to friction with Jim Lee and Bob Harras, and had he held on a little longer, he could have more or less regained control of the book since Lee left shortly afterward) meant that he felt ownership of these characters and that he could advance and evolve them in ways that other Marvel books couldn't. Which is why he was able to introduce a new generation and have them potentially replace the main X-Men cast who would eventually age out of their roles.

He should've realized that none of those characters belonged to him, they belonged to Marvel

[whitecrown]

He should've realized that none of those characters belonged to him, they belonged to Marvel

I don't think he sees it that way. Especially not with the characters that he more or less created like Wolverine, Storm, Phoenix, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty, Rogue, Rachel, Psylocke, Gambit, Mystique, etc. And even reformed Magneto is more or less his creation.

[EmeraldGladiator]

Remember the rules no bashing of Maddy in the Maddy appreciation thread. Take that elsewhere. In this thread she is THE ginger X-Woman of choice.

[EmeraldGladiator]

When is the X-Factor announcement?

[Havok83]

When is the X-Factor announcement?

they havent announced that

[EmeraldGladiator]

thanks Havok just getting anxious I guess, there are a lot of characters unclaimed so far that I am interested in if they have a home, Maddy, Alex, Warren. Lucas Bishop, and Roberto DeCosta. X-Factor is the last best hope of the announced books.

[GoingGreen]

There's been "a leak" - I don't know how legitimate, implying X-Factor spins out of this summer's Wolverine & Deadpool event, Weapon X-Traction that spans across a number of titles, widely Avengers and Avengers-Adjacent titles. If the "leak" was accurate, X-Factor #1 will be the final (8th) chapter of Weapon X-Traction, released in August. So we might not hear about X-Factor at all until next month, when they release August solicitations.

The leak also kindof implies it's going to seem more like an X-Force title, and maybe more of a liaison book, not an X-Exclusive title like the rest.

[JThree]

Superhero comics are never going to end, Claremont thinking that he had truly retired Scott and given him a happy ending that later guys ignored and had every right to hate on the character was as childish as a grown up man could be.

Have to disagree with that assessment. We all have our soft spots, and Claremont might have just meant to retire Scott and Maddie for awhile, until he could figure out other storylines for him and her. When you have that many characters to work with, and you have various storylines to juggle, you move people in and out of the spotlight for awhile. At the time, Claremont was the main writer for the X-Men, and there wasn't all the tens of X titles that we have today. It made the stories more cohesive rather than jumbled

--jthree

[marhawkman]

Have to disagree with that assessment. We all have our soft spots, and Claremont might have just meant to retire Scott and Maddie for awhile, until he could figure out other storylines for him and her. When you have that many characters to work with, and you have various storylines to juggle, you move people in and out of the spotlight for awhile. At the time, Claremont was the main writer for the X-Men, and there wasn't all the tens of X titles that we have today. It made the stories more cohesive rather than jumbled

--jthree

Yeah X-Men is a franchise where you have a lot of room to just... tell stories about new people. There's SOOO many too! Academy-X could have done something like having the X-academy students get into fights with the junior Acolytes, or Clan Akkaba kids... But no they binned the whole thing, blew most of the kids up, and went back to having the main team mope about how much life sucks.

[EmeraldGladiator]

Yeah X-Men is a franchise where you have a lot of room to just... tell stories about new people. There's SOOO many too! Academy-X could have done something like having the X-academy students get into fights with the junior Acolytes, or Clan Akkaba kids... But no they binned the whole thing, blew most of the kids up, and went back to having the main team mope about how much life sucks.

MHM that being said Claremont did it better than most because when he did give you the spotlight he made it count. He wrote Alpha Flights what 2 guest appearances into an ongoing comic. He wrote a storyline for Madelyne Pryor post Mutant Massacre so epic imho that she became and remains my favorite female X-character despite not being used for decades as well as a part of my favorite X-couple (Alex and Maddy) who haven't been together since Claremont left them in Inferno decades ago...Until recently. I miss and long for that quality of writing that makes me care for the characters again. Zeb Wells gave me hope on his Hellions run, not only bringing back Maddy and putting her Alex's orbit but also made me care for characters I had no feelings for, Kwannon and Greycrow (hopefully they give him a Hellions books to finish his story)